Johannes Zukertort

Johannes Zukertort
Zukertort, early 1880s
Full name	Johannes Hermann Zukertort
Country	Poland German Empire United Kingdom
Born	(1842-09-07)7 September 1842 Lublin, Congress Poland
Died	20 June 1888(1888-06-20) (aged 45) London, England

Johannes Hermann Zukertort (Polish: Jan Hermann Cukiertort; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a leading Polish chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, and lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, generally regarded as the first World Chess Championship match. He was also defeated by Steinitz in 1872 in an unofficial championship; both were the world's best players.

Zukertort filled his relatively short life with a wide range of other achievements as a soldier, musician, linguist, journalist and political activist. He became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom in 1878.

Zukertort was born 7 September 1842 in Lublin, Congress Poland as Jan Hermann Cukiertort. He said that his mother was the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). His father was a Christian Protestant missionary of Jewish origin. The Christian mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was considered an illegal activity. Therefore, the Zukertort family emigrated to Prussia. He was educated at the gymnasium of Breslau, and in 1866 at the University of Breslau, from which he graduated in medicine in 1866. As a member of the medical corps of the German army he saw service in 1866, and again during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71.

Zukertort is widely believed to have embellished his biography. In an account of his life for the Norfolk News in 1872 he claimed aristocratic descent, fluency in nine languages (fourteen, acc. to other sources), proficiency in swordsmanship, dominoes and whist; said he had played 6,000 games of chess with Adolf Anderssen, fought in numerous battles and was awarded seven medals besides the Order of the Red Eagle and the Iron Cross. He also found time to get an M.D. at Breslau in 1865 and work on the staff of Bismarck's private organ the Allgemeine Zeitung in addition to writing two chess books and working as the editor of a chess magazine for several years. "There is some truth in the last sentence: he was co-author of the books, co-editor of the chess magazine."